Evacuated

Sunday - Part One

Sunday. I woke up at the Aarons, scanned the room to find nobody in there but Joyce Ann bitting on the bars on her crib. "Don't they feed that kid?" She didn't stop. "Considering their salary, probably not" my negative side imputed. I rubbed my head to see if my hair was flying in every direction. I usually don't give a rat's ass about how I look, especially not in the morning. But I couldn't walk out there looking like I had just slept the night away with Jess being out there and all, so I had to look at least half decent, even for me. I restrained myself from laying in bed no longer and rose to my feet. I lifted Joyce Ann out of the crib and set her down in her high chair at the table. "Hey Leslie!" May Belle's sweet voice called. I smiled a faint smile at the girl. I walked by Jess who dumbly patted me on the head, so I returned the gesture, wondering what the hell was going on in his head.

"Wanna go outside?" Jess asked a while later, after I had settled from eating breakfast. "Sure!" I agreed, before walking away to go get dressed. After I had put on long pants and a t-shirt, I met Jess at the front door. "You should get a sweater" Jess said, throwing one over his own shoulders. "I didn't bring one, and I don't wanna take either of your older sisters" I told him. He walked back into his bedroom, not giving me a single word. He threw a plaid buttoned long-sleeve shirt on my head, trying not to smile or laugh. "Who's is this?" I asked, lifting it off my head. "Mine" Jess smiled. I smiled back as I slipped it over my shoulders.

We walked down by the lake together. It was a lot hotter than we had initially thought. "I'm hot" Jess complained. I agreed, I was practically sweating but I didn't want to take Jess' shirt off. "Wanna race?" I changed the subject. "I'm not wearing good shoes" Jess denied. Then Jess ran fast ahead of me down the white platform parting us from the lake. "Hey wait!" I called trying to catch up. "No ya don't" Jess said, moving up. "Oh yah I do" I tried to match his pace. Just then, I was meters ahead, in only seconds. I turned around and saw Jess, hands and knees on the ground. "Jess!" I called, running over to him. "Are you alright?" I asked. "Yeah" he dusted himself off, I could see he was laughing a little. We kept running until we reached the end of the road. "We should go inside and change" I suggested, not being able to handle the heat no more. "Or stay inside" Jess added. "Aw, come on. It's great out here!" I smiled. "Too hot" Jess whined like a little baby. "Alright, fine." We walked down the direction we came from. "Look!" I said. The lake wasn't filled up, it was still down for the winter. It was only April 17th, after all. I jumped down on the dirt that used to hold water during the summertime. "I can't come down there, I'll wreck my shoes" Jess stated from the platform. "Him and those damn shoes." I walked right up to where the lake had began and screamed as my feet sunk into the mud. I ran back to the platform as fast as I could to avoid getting any more muddy than I already was. The platform from where I was standing was taller than me. I reached for the top of it, climbing between the little cracks in the cement. I didn't look up, not once. I climbed hard, and tried to make it look easy. Which, I managed pretty well. Once I stopped at the platform after running back, I knew Jess had wondered how I was gonna get back up, so I wanted to impress him by making it look like the task most kids wouldn't be able to fulfill, I could do with ease. "Alright then" Jess said sharply as I squirmed up to the base of the platform. "What?" I asked, lifting myself to my feet. "I put out my hand to help you and you just ignored me" he had said something like that. "Aw, I'm sorry, I didn't see you!" I felt like such a goddamn idiot, I must've been red as a tomato. "So damn stupid, Leslie. You're such an idiot" I couldn't stop the putdowns in my head. "It's alright" Jess smiled. We continued walking for a bit when I saw something down by the lake. I jumped back down into the dirt and examined the small glass bottle wiped up by the drained lake. It wasn't much, so I decided to climb back up. "Don't be an idiot this time, Leslie." I grasped the concrete and Jess reached his hand out to me. I grasped on before claiming "you'll never be able to pull me out by yourself" I warned. And to my surprise, Jess tightened his grip on my hand, and pulled me straight out with no problem. "Wow" I gasped. "I never knew you were that strong" I was impressed by that, for sure. Jess just laughed as we made our way to the end of the platform, leading into more grassy area alongside a pathway that lead back to behind his house. "You know our ship name is Jesslie, right?" he asked. My stomach did a somersault before causing me to choke a little at his statement. "Um yeah, I thought that up yesterday" I shamefully admitted. "Great, now I sound desperate. Way to go, me." I saw Jess' expression changed quickly when I retained myself. "I thought that up days ago" Jess admitted. "There's no way I heard that right." "You did?" I asked, a surprised tone in my voice. Jess nodded, looking down at the ground. "Awe, that's adorable!" Damn, I was such an idiot sometimes.